Finding Time For Patient Education: 4 Tips For Healthcare Providers

It’s not news to doctors that an important part of their job is educating their patients about their health and medical conditions. The problem is that a meaningful
interaction takes time—one thing that doctors don’t have. A 2013 Medscape survey found that the largest group of physician responders spent between 13 and 16 minutes per
patient.

Fortunately, many opportunities for education exist during a patient’s visit outside of the exam room. Following are four strategies to help healthcare
providers solve the patient education dilemma.

1. Use a nurse or health educator to provide patients with additional education.

A study from the
Journal of Hypertension found that patients quickly forget about 40% of what physicians tell them. After an appointment is over, patients may have questions or need more information; perhaps
they have been diagnosed with a chronic condition that requires education to manage it effectively. Setting up time to have an educator meet with patients—either individually or in a
group—can help patients address concerns that may not have been covered during their visit, and reinforce any instructions or recommendations.

2. Replace print
content with videos where appropriate.

Healthcare providers often provide patients with written educational materials, but videos may be more effective at helping patients
retain information. A study in the Journal of Medical Education found that showing patients a video followed by brief one-on-one meetings with healthcare providers saved physicians time without
affecting the amount of information patients retained compared with prolonged individual meetings.

Healthcare providers can create their own videos or use videos created by patient
education companies.

3. Use technology to share educational content with patients.

Putting educational articles and videos about health conditions
and their treatment on a practice’s website allows patients and their loved ones to access this information any time. Doctors can create their own content for their patients, or they can offer
high-quality materials provided by cloud-based patient education programs.

Doctors may also want to provide their patients with more targeted information via a content
management platform. If a patient is considering hip replacement, for example, their orthopedist can select educational content from a library of information about the procedure that will help the
patient make a decision, and email it to them, post it on their patient portal, upload it to a personal web page that the patient can view, or even share it on a mobile device in the office. This
saves time at the next appointment, because the patient will be informed and ready to take an active role in his or her treatment decisions.

4. Give patients the
information they are looking for as soon as they walk in the door.

Cloud-based technology also lets practices offer patients focused education in the waiting room. And because
data is stored and accessed over the internet instead of on a computer’s hard drive, it doesn’t require additional hardware, but can be accessed from any device with an internet
connection. This includes a flat-screen TV, a tablet, or a patient’s smartphone.

With these options, healthcare providers can syndicate content or develop and use their
own. Content may include health risk assessments, articles, videos, slideshows, patient testimonials, customized messaging, and relevant surveys.

Keeping patients up to date
on their condition and their care shouldn’t be a stumbling block, especially with all of the technology options available. By providing them with the information they need in a way they can use
it, practices have the opportunity to help patients become more empowered partners in their healthcare.

Another strategy is to partner with a company like AccentHealth or other similar POC media companies. We provide patient education information for doctors in their waiting rooms. A service that is offered FREE to the physicians and sponsored by healthcare marketing partners.

Librarians, especially those working in the hospital or easily accessible to healthcare workers, should be considered a viable option for patient education material acquisition. Not only is this sort of duty entirely their purview, having been trained to analyze the information needs of all sorts of users, most librarians are very tech-saavy and expert "Googlers," among other things, and have ways and means to deliver any sort of material, any topic, any format. Librarians should always be kept in mind for the finding process; the time that they can save you alone will astonish you!